November, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



885 



But -wliile's aulfl Zcmis is in the dumps, 

 Then dour an' suUon are the skies; 



The only vcind a,t Keek-afar 

 Is jist our Laird's deep sighs. 



— Elizabeth Forrest j\xon. 



As I write the great drawback to t!'M 

 whole business of harnessing the wind is the 

 expense of the storage batteries. Friend 

 Forrest has three of them. He has become 

 so familiar with them that he remodels 

 them, and I think he has built a few him- 

 self. Of course the advance in the price 

 of metals has something to do with it ; but 

 T am inclined to think at the present time 

 that manufacturers are charging rather 

 more than the circumstances warrant. The 

 battery alone for lainning such an automo- 

 bile as I use costs new, for 24 cells, about 

 $260, or a little more than $10 per cell; 

 but a new battery, with ordinary care, will 

 do work for ten or twelve years. Some of 

 them are doing still better. When I sug- 

 gested to friend Forrest that he might do 

 light work without running his current thru 

 liis batteries, he replied that past experience 

 seemed to indicate that a battery would last 

 longer, and keep in better repair, where it 

 is used almost every day, than where it is 

 I>ermitted to stand a long while idle; and 

 that sort of philosophy seems to apply 

 pretty well to old men when they get to be, 

 like myself, close to 80 years old. They 

 live longer, and do more good, where they 

 " keep in the harness " every day. A good 



friend at one of our bix'kceping coii\enlions 

 down in Florida said last winter something 

 like this : " Lots of people die because it 

 does not seem to be of any use for them to 

 live any longer." 



Some of you may ask what the text at 

 the head of this Home paper has to do with 

 the talk I have just given you. Well, if 

 you will just think of it 1 believe you will 

 see where it comes in. These wonderful 

 de\'elopments — steam, electricity, automo- 

 biles, flying-machines, harnessing Niag'ara, 

 etc., came about because some good man (or 

 woman) followed the injunction contained 

 in that beautiful text and promise — "seek, 

 and ye shall find;" and our good friend 

 Forrest has for years past been seeking 

 indefatigably, and now he ha^ received his 

 reAvard. He is so well up on electricity 

 and electric generators and motors that on 

 questions where our college professors seem 

 to be in deep water he is almost at home. 

 Last of all, and best of all, he is a good 

 Methodist. God bless the Misthodists 

 wherever they may be. 



Now, good friends, when the unused wind 

 shall finally turn out like the much-abused 

 sweet clover that grows along the roadside, 

 and shall be'gin to do the work that has 

 heretofore been done by wood, coal, gaso- 

 line, and gas, then remember that your old 

 friend A. I. Eoot said in this Home paper, 

 " I told you so." 



HIGH - PRESSURE GARDENING 



THE CHAYOTE OR " BABY-TOES ;" SOMETHING 

 MORE ABOUT IT AND OTHER THINGS. 

 As I sat down this morning to my monthly en- 

 joyment of Our Homes the first thing that caught 

 my attention was an illustration of the "chayote." 

 I recognized the fruit (or, rather, vegetable) in a 

 minute; but as I had never heard it called by such 

 a name, naturally I read the article very atten- 

 tively. I have been familiar with this vegetable 

 since early childhood. It grew well in Pointe 

 Coupe Parish, La., where I spent many of my girl- 

 hood days. It is what the southern catalogs list as 

 " Scyios or Sechium edulis," and what we Louisiana 

 folks call "mirliton" or vegetable pear. As chil- 

 dren we could not twist our little tongues over that 

 French mirliton, so we called them "millie toes;" 

 and a dear little sister, now gone before, one day- 

 wanted a second helping, and, having forgotten the 

 toe part, remembered it was only something about 

 the body, and asked mother for some more " millie 

 fingers," which caused a roar of laughter from us 

 larger children. Our home was one of those dear 

 places where children were not relegated to the 

 kitchen or second table; but even the last baby in 

 its high chair, at mother's side, ate with its elders. 

 We were tausrht to keep quiet and to behave at the 

 table, and that \\ as all there was to it. 



Now, Mr. Root, you have "one over" Mrs. Root, 

 as the mirliton is one of the most delicious vege- 

 tables when rightly cooked. Here is what one of my 

 catalogs says : 



"This fruit forms a delightful dish, finer in flavor 

 than either eggplant, squash, or pumpkin." 



Speaking of pumpkin, we Southerners in many 

 places use the young pumpkins and kershaws as 

 squash, cooking them the same way. This is a "hard 

 times" hint, and here is another: Beet leaves, 

 radish leaves, and even leltnice, all, make fine 

 greens when young and tender. It would really 

 take an expert to tell beet greens from spinach, if 

 cooked the same way. 



Now, Gleanings, I want to thank and compli- 

 ment you on your beautiful volume the ABC and 

 X Y Z of Bee Culture, which came to us .June 5. 

 I told my better half (.1. H. Wlieeler) that he should 

 have been as prompt to let you know he received it 

 as he was to keep after you; but he is always very 

 busy. What time he has from his other work he 

 puts in with the bees. I can't help him with them 

 any more than to bottle the honey and melt the wax, 

 as the bees "do me up" dreadfully. 



I was quite interested in the Lewis Publishing 

 Co. My husband and I were "charter subscribers" 

 in the Woman's National Daily published by him 

 some ten years ago. We were so taken with him 



